Singapore airport unveils stunning media installation
With a pool, 24-hour movie theatres showing the latest blockbusters for free and even a sunflower garden, Singapore’s Changi Airport has never been run-of-the-mill, but its latest upgrade is somehow taking it up another notch.
The airport – recently named the world’s best for the sixth year running – has just unveiled the results of 15 months’ work on terminal four, which includes two new “media features”, delivering “optical illusions and cinematic storytelling” to travellers and a spectacular five-storey indoor playground.
Bernard Siew, vice president of airport operations management, says Changi, which handles one flight every 80 seconds and is the world’s sixth busiest for international traffic, has long been more than simply an airport.
“We constantly challenge; why must an airport be a stressful, cold place? Why can’t the airport be like a hospitality place, like even maybe a theme park?” Siew says.
The theme park analogy is a good one when it comes to the “immersive and theatrical experience” provided by a new 70 metre by 5 metre LED media wall in the security screening area, the brainchild of Moment Factory, a Montreal-based multimedia studio.
It plays seven different pieces of content, each with its own story and environment, from “The Suitcase Machine”, which offers a whimsical glimpse behind the scenes of Changi’s baggage handling system to “Through the Lens”, which takes viewers on an imaginary international voyage. In “World Skies’, famous city landmarks emerge out of the clouds and the starry sky, accompanied by live data, such as weather and flight information.
The Perankan Love Story installation at Singapore’s Changi airport. Picture: Moment Factory
Inside the terminal, the second media installation, “Peranakan Love Story”, sits in Changi’s heritage zone, where visitors shop and eat. Appearing static at first, two LED façades come to life to tell a local love story that brings two families together.
The idea was developed in collaboration with the iconic Singaporean singer Dick Lee and was inspired by the row of traditional Peranakan shophouse façades being built inside the terminal.
The installation opens to tell a local love story. Picture: Moment Factory
After taking in the light show, families can kill time in the striking new red playground in the departure lounge, dubbed Chandelier.
The free playground, shaped in a double helix, with a weaved tapestry steel core, features climbing nets and fireman poles. It’s made out of 10 kilometres of rope and is supported by about 15 tonnes of steel. It’s joined to the ceiling and can hold 50 people.
The Suitcase Machine visualisation at Singapore’s Changi Airport. Picture: Moment Factory
Terminal four, opened in 2017, also boasts a medical clinic, “shut eye” areas, a free entrainment corner with Xbox Kinect and arcade games, art installations, more than 550 internet stations, a history gallery, prayer rooms and a TV lounge.
Across its four terminals, Changi Airport also has more than 400 retail stores and 140 food and beverage outlets. It served a record 62 million passengers rom around the globe in 2017.
The media experience is in Singapore airport’s new Terminal 4. Picture: Moment Factory
